hello this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines: thousands of people head to the beach and take to boats seeking refuge from bush fires in australia. helicopters and the navy are deployed to help jasper put your blanket up. a crew battling the fires in new south wales recorded the moment when their truck was overrun. they sheltered inside as the fire front passed through. former nissan boss carlos chosn flees to lebanon from japan, despite being barred from travelling

as he awaits trial. thousands of iraqi militiamen have attacked the american embassy in baghdad, angry at us air strikes on theirforces. the first civil partnerships ceremonies for heterosexual couples in england and wales are being held, giving them similar rights to people who are married. now on bbc news, witness history and a look back at some of the highlights of the series from the last 12 months. razia iqbal presents five extraordinary moments in history as told by the people that were there, including the story of the first african in the arctic and the birth of communism in china. hello, and welcome to witness history with me, razia iqbal. we have been looking back on the many extraordinary moments from history that we have brought you in 2019, so here

are five of our favourite stories to share once more. coming up, the children sent away by their parents to save them from the nazis, the ballet company that defied racism, the first african in the arctic, and the man at mission control when neil armstrong set foot on the moon. but first, a moment which in many ways said the cause for the second half of the 20th century, the birth of the people's republic of china. on the ist of october, 1949, mao zedong declared china a communist state. we spoke to one young recruit in the people's liberation army took part in the parade in beijing which marked that momentous day. translation: i was in the infantry, marching in a prominent position. i was so excited and proud tojoin the parade.

i didn't sleep well, i kept thinking about my steps. if my commander ordered, look right, would i be able to do it? in 1949, i was 19. only some of us could be selected tojoin a military parade to celebrate the birth of the people's republic of china. we had a month's practice for the parade at a compound in southern beijing. we learned how to goosestep in unison, marching together as if we were one man, looking to the right towards the audience. on the day, i saw chairman mao and the other leaders of the country in tiananmen square, i was so excited and overwhelmed. i felt so optimistic because chairman mao said that the army belongs to the people. it was different from

the nationalists‘ kuomintang. october the ist was the day that the people's republic of china, the world's most populous country, was proclaimed a communist state. until the day, the people's liberation army led by mao zedong had fought a bitter civil war against the nationalists. now they were victorious, and mao took over the reins of government. translation: at that time i thought our country would become a communist country where everybody could be fed and everyone would have a job. in the old society, this was unimaginable. i saw hunger and death at every corner in pre—revolutionary beijing, but no—one cared about it. ever since childhood, my life was tough.

when i was six, my father died, and my mother and i had to go on the streets and beg for a living. it was hard trying to survive. everyone was poor. people gave us free buns and bread which help keep us alive for a while. after trying lots of different ways to keep food on the table, my mother had to marry again to survive. i went to a local factory to learn how to make and fix bikes, but i still couldn't earn enough to buy basics like bread and butter, so i learned how to ride rickshaws in beijing to earn more money. after the peaceful liberation of beijing in early 1949, an undercover communist party member approached me. he explained that the communist army was different from the nationalists‘ kuomintang. it worked for the people and helped the poor. it made me feel like they were family. that is when i decided to become a communist soldier in beijing.

i often told my children and grandchildren that i was so proud to join the army. but even now i deeply regret that i was not allowed to join the communist party. i think it's because i was illiterate. i never had the chance to go to school and get an education, but when i was in the army, i performed really well and won many medals. here is my proof. i was a beggar in the old days, but my life was transformed into a better one. i won't forget what the communist party did for me. but there's a long way to go to reach the final goal of building a communist society. a soldier of the people's liberation army on the birth of communist china. next, one of the earliest instances of mass child migration,

just before the second world war, in 1939, dame stephanie shirley's mother put her on a train in vienna bound for london, not knowing if they would ever meet again. she was one of thousands of the mostlyjewish unaccompanied children whose parents sent them to the uk for safety during the rise of the nazis in europe. archive: 200 boys and girls wave a hand to england, land of the free. the children are between the ages of five and 17, the advance guard of the child refugees from birmingham to be provided with a temporary home here while arrangements are made forthem to immigrate... everybody said, aren't you lucky? aren't you lucky? and indeed we were. sometimes, when i've been asked my date of birth, i've said 1939. because to me my life started then.

the kindertransport was an amazing rescue mission set up by christian and jewish activists who brought nearly10,000, mainlyjewish, children out of nazi europe. i was five years old and i was one of those children. my family was a sort of secularjewish family. we had moved over quite a bit of europe, starting in dortmund, where my father was a judge and had been fired in 1933 and finished up in vienna, which was my mother's home city. i think it was clear thatjews in central europe faced catastrophe. there was an announcement that there had been a concession by the nazis to allow children up to the age of 16 to leave without their parents,

so we knew something was afoot and that we were going to england. i can remember the scene at the station of many, many families, mostly weeping, some in a sort of whaling. many families, mostly weeping, some in a sort of wailing. i believe most parents did not expect to see their children again. my mother didn't cry, nor did we. i was with my sister, renata, who was ten years old. i clutched her you know, because i was scared. we had an overnight crossing to harwich, and then another train to liverpool street station. when we got off the train, the platform was silent, you've got 1,000 children, tired and smelly after two and a half days, just absolutely exhausted, and there was no chatter, no noise. children were called, and off

we went with our new parents. we were among the last to be claimed. we were fostered by a lovely english couple in the midlands of england who had seen a photograph in a local paper of my sister and i with just a few lines underneath, saying "two sisters, well brought up, seeking a home, can you help?" they couldn't speak a word of german, i couldn't speak a word of english. i was traumatised, they were nervous, it was pretty grim! my feelings were just of being disturbed, of being with strange people, of not understanding what was going on, and when was i going to see my mother again? we were reunited after about 12 months or so, and we lived with our natural parents when i was in my teens, but as i think happens quite often with separated families,

i never really bonded with them again, and that i really mourn. the act of sending your children away is a fantastic act of love. it didn't seem like it at the time, but it is the most loving thing a parent can do. the former child refugee, dame stephanie shirley. now to america, and a pioneering dance company that defied the prejudice that kept black people out of ballet. the dance theatre of harlem was the first classical ballet company for black dancers. it was founded by arthur mitchell in a converted garage in harlem in 1969. virginia johnson was one of the first to join. it wasn't until i was graduating

from the washington school of ballet that the director came to me, and she said, you know, you're going to have a career, you're a really wonderful dancer, but you're never going to be a ballerina because of the colour of your skin. it was following the assassination of martin luther king in 1968 that arthur mitchell decided to set up a dance company for black people in harlem. arthur mitchell was the principal dancer with the new york city ballet, and he was the first african—american to achieve that level in a major american ballet company. he looked around at this neighbourhood and said, these kids don't have a future. education is terrible, the schools are failing, nobody cares about them, they don't have a way of breaking the cycle of poverty. but if i teach them ballet, i'm going to give them something else to draw from within themselves.

we started with 30 children and two dancers, and everyone said i was crazy because i was using a european art form, classical ballet, but i think that is the strongest technical foundation. after you have that technique, you can do anything you want. classical ballet is impossibly difficult and requires focus, it requires self—discipline, and it requires perseverance. in two months i had 400 kids, in 4 months i had 800 kids, so it shows there was a want and a need and a desire for this. i got to new york in the fall of 1968, and somebody told me that arthur mitchell was teaching a class up in harlem on saturdays and i could go up and get a little ballet back in my life. ijoined the dance theatre of harlem in the spring of 1969, and right from the start it was magic.

he was maniacal. if we were going to do ballet, we were going to be the best ballet dancers the world had ever seen. it was extremely difficult and painful, those first years, nothing that we did was right. he was driving us, he was pushing us every minute. so there were black people who didn't want us to do the white man's art form, and white people who thought we could never understand it or have the talent or the bodies. and we were really fortunate, for ourfirst new york performances, the big critic from the new york times said "this is the most exciting thing in ballet," so he gave us the little nod, and people were saying, ok, let's see if they are any good. ten years after that, i would see young people walking into the studio with a sense of ownership. of course i can be a ballet dancer! and that was the most beautiful thing in the world to me, that they had no question, whereas i had nothing but question.

we have been performing all over the place, celebrating the 50th anniversary. it is notjust about being perfect on balance in a tutu. that is just a sliver of what ballet can say. virginia johnson is now the dance theatre of harlem's artistic director. remember, you can watch us every month on the bbc news channel, or catch up on all our films along with more than 1,000 radio programmes in our online archive. now to a story of courage and adventure. as a 16—year—old, tete—michel kpomassie ran as far away from west africa as he could, finally reaching greenland in 1965 to fulfil a childhood dream

of living in the arctic. i started a journey of discovery, only to find that i was being discovered. i was one of them. i became kind of the african eskimo. i was born in 1941 in togo, west africa. i grew up as an ordinary african boy. but one day i was in a tree and suddenly there was a snake. ifell, and i was badly injured.

after my convalescence, i went to the missionary bookshop, and i saw a book, eskimos from greenland to alaska, and i learnt that it is so cold in greenland that there are no snakes. oh, where is that paradise?! i was obsessed with eskimos. people said, yeah, you are completely mad! i ran away from togo. i was 16 and a half. it took me eight years to get to greenland. i was the first black man they had ever seen. as soon as they saw me, all talking stopped.

and the children were so afraid, some started weeping, but i was always welcomed by eskimos, who became my friends. i had to learn everything from them. i had to learn the language. slowly by slowly, i became accustomed to the climate. i was happy. i really wanted to live forever in greenland. but my countrymen have never seen the polar night before, the polar light before, and i said to myself, after the slavery and colonisation, why can't i write for my people

to see the eskimos through, through our eyes? so i decided to go back. it took me five years to write it. but my deepest wish would be to end my life in greenland. it is my country. yes. tete—michel wrote an award—winning account of his adventures which has been translated into eight languages. our final witness describes probably one of the most important moments in living memory. injuly1969, apollo 11 became the first space flight to successfully land people on the moon. flight controller gerry griffin was at mission control in houston as the world watched in awe.

mission control was made up of a bunch of young people. i was 3a and i was one of the older guys in the room. i think we all felt that nobody has ever done this, so let's just do it. there was a routine from launch, i would say, to the point of going into lunar orbit. the final phases of the descent of apollo 11 were kind of fraught. we had two computer alarms saying that the computer was being overworked. they took a quick look to make sure all the guidance was correct. quickly gave them a go. so it was dicey, and then they started running short of fuel,

and we were concerned. you heard 60 seconds, 30. it was in neil armstrong's hands at that point. neil was a very, very good pilot. he could already see that the computer was taking him into a boulderfield, so he had to manoeuvre to try to find a smooth place. and the fuel gauge was headed down, and we were watching it. and it was nerve—racking. i never will forget when buzz aldrin said we were picking up dust, he did that a little less than 100 feet above the surface, and that is when i thought, "we will make it."

when they first touched down, it was a great relief. i remember being proud — we did it! neil told me one time, "it's like an automobile, when it is on empty, there is a little bit left in the tank." neil went down the ladder, the television picture was pretty grainy, but we could basically tell what he was doing. i think everybody was just awestruck, and there was very little being said in that room. he first actually got down to the footpath, and he was standing there,

i think he was collecting his thoughts, and i think he wanted to make sure that he was calm enough and not too excited, which he never was. then he took the one small step. i remember thinking, you knew he would come up with something profound. buzz came after him. when they planted the flag and talked to the president, i heard these two guys standing on the moon — wow, it worked. it kind of amazes me, 50 years later today, you realise what we did? flight controller gerry griffin remembering the moment that changed the way we look at the world and the universe. that is all for this month

here at the royal academy, we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. from me and the rest of the team, goodbye. hello, there. we've had some fairly quiet weather over the christmas period and that will continue into the new year, as well. it has been a mixed fortune sort of day. we have had some sunshine in many parts of scotland, northern ireland and northern england, but further south are to be much more grey, misty and murky. in the far south—west, still a few spots of rain. the cloud is beginning to push its way back towards northern ireland. we will

keep the sunshine for scotland and northern england. it is a bit colder thanit northern england. it is a bit colder than it was yesterday. further south, a bit misty and murky, temperatures could get up to 10 degrees with light winds. if you will be out and about this evening, the rain in the south—west will move towards the channel islands. cloud amounts increase and further north. overall, it will be a dry and cloudy midnight. probably some clear skies for a while in the north—east of england, particularly the north—east of scotland, so maybe some frost here. some mist and fog patches even under the cloudy skies further south. into the first day of the new year, we pick up a south—westerly breeze. a dry day on wednesday, but a lot of cloud. the best chance of sun chang probably north wales, north—eastern parts of england and in the north—east of scotland where

we have stronger winds. 10 degrees in the north—west of scotland, double figures in the south—west of england. we are tapping into some mild if cloudy air during wednesday and into thursday. the wind coming from a long way south ahead of these weather fronts that are bringing real time from the north—west. that rain could be happiest of the hills of north—western scotland, bringing some localised flooding. this room will push it —— this rainbow across scotland, northern ireland, then later the north of wales northern england. there will be a much stronger when come up to gale force, but it will be mild with temperatures in double figures. by friday, cooler air comment on across the uk, but probably more in the way of sunshine. patchy cloud on saturday, but most places will be dry.

lebanon says the former nissan boss carlos ghosn entered the country this is bbc news i'm shaun ley. the headlines at two. thousands of people in south—eastern australia are forced to seek refuge on the coast after becoming trapped by advancing bushfires. lebanon says the former nissan boss carlos ghosn entered the country legally and will not face any legal consequences, after he fled japan where he was awaiting trial. thousands of iraqi militiamen attack the american embassy in baghdad, angry at us air strikes on theirforces. from today — mixed—sex couples in england and wales can finally enter into civil partnerships. new legislation comes into force tomorrow to make trains fully accessible for disabled users — but not all firms will make the deadline. i will be looking back on a